Whilst driving up to
Stoneleigh for the Autumn Restoration Show in October 2008, I was bemoaning the
fact that my Coupe could really do with intermittent wipers.You don’t notice that something like that is missing until you need
them.The day was grey and there was
a gentle mizzle on the screen, not enough to need the wipers on low speed, but
enough that I had to keep using the flick wipe – really annoying!If you use your
Marina
or Ital all year round you’ll know what I mean.

I had never heard of Marinas
or Itals having intermittent wipers, so my thoughts turned to how I could make a
kit,I started by checking the
Haynes manuals and I found that later hi-spec Itals actually had them as
standard.That led me to track down
what was fitted and where I might get them.It turns out that Lucas made a special relay for cars that had flick
wipes like the Marina & Ital; flick it once and the intermittent comes on
and the wipes once every 5 seconds, flick them again and they go off.Also if you hold the switch down
for longer than 1.5 seconds, they wipe until you release and park again without
activating the relay – best of both worlds!

Lucas
Relay 6DA - Wiper Delay Control Unit.

I made a series web searches
to track one down, what I found was that they were unavailable; however there
were various other options.There’s
a guy on EBay who sometimes offers something similar that does a intermittent
& wash/wipe kit for older Minis which would fit but he wanted £50+ for one
– and I didn’t need one that much.

Back to Plan A and I
found a Lucas catalogue which quoted the 6DA and also other part numbers for the
same thing – AAU 7087A.From there I searched to find out if any other cars used the newer part
number and low and behold up popped the Triumph TR7.Another internet search showed that they were available new and used from
several sources;

So to fitting; as you will
see from the fitting sheet that came with it (reproduced below), the relay unit
plugs straight into the Marina & Ital loom and apart from running an earth
lead, it will fit anywhere behind the dashboard that suits you.Of course there is always a problem, between the Marina Mk1 & Mk2,
Lucas changed the
Marina
electrical loom plastic connections on wipers and indicators.They then kept them the same through to the last Ital.This means that the relay will fit all Mk2s, Mk3s and Itals without any
problem.

As my Coupe is a Mk1 I had to source the
newer style plastic connector plugs (Holden
Vintage and Classic - Harness Connector
5-way - pn080.045 about £3.50
– Tel. 01885 488488) and then carefully remove the pin
connectors from the MK1 wiper switch loom plug, push them into the new type plug
and then into the relay (don’t smash the old plastic wiper loom connector as
your going to need it in a minute and no-one makes them any more).I made up a short loom extension which starts with the other half of the
new plug, with female connectors and then re-used the Mk1 plastic plug which
some new male connectors, so that I could plug back into the MK1 loom.

If
you have a Mk1 it’s not too difficult and I think most owners could do it
themselves. I
am now working on a relay to switch the wipers on when you use the screen
washers - two or three wipes will do it I think.